Illinois corruption 8/2/12: Former Cook County president's press aide indicted for kickback scheme

Chicago Tax Day Tea Party, 2009

Just how entrenched is corruption in Illinois? So much so that the press aide of former Cook County Board president Todd Stroger, Eugene Mullins, was indicted yesterday for allegedly accepting kickbacks from friends so they could get county business. Where else do press aides find themselves in such trouble?

Mullins' federal indictment was unsealed today.

He was a boyhood chum of Stroger. This is the way graft-ridden Illinois is run.

Stroger's father, John, was Cook County Board president until 2006. After he suffered a massive stroke a week before the '06 Democratic Primary, he was never seen in public again. Stroger narrowly won that race and after an exhaustive search of Cook County's five million residents--I hear I was considered--Todd took his place on the November ballot.

The younger Stroger's disastrous four year term's millstone was the one percent county sales tax increase, forcing Cook County residents such as myself to pay the nation's highest sales tax. Stroger's successor, Democrat Toni Preckwinkle, ran on a platform of repealing what was dubbed the "corruption tax." It is gradually being rolled back.

Between 2000 and 2010, Cook County lost population. Are you surprised?

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